


keep me guessing

by truthwallflower



Series: keep me [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Half asleep Claude, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:35:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21669847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthwallflower/pseuds/truthwallflower
Summary: Byleth finds out Claude sleeps in the nude the hard way. Literally.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth & Claude von Riegan, My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Series: keep me [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546423
Comments: 11
Kudos: 251





	keep me guessing

It is late at night in Byleth’s room when she is her most harebrained. She sits at her desk, crammed with books and scrolls and whatever may help her to support Claude’s plans for the war. She wears no armour or shoes, uncaring she may wear holes in the feet of her stockings. Instead, she is hyper focused, scrambling for the tome she needed among a pin in a haystack. 

Her room is not as messy as Claude’s, she defends when Hilda badgers her, but privately she begrudgingly admits to herself how his tendencies have influenced the scattered cluttering’s of her room. Her bed is clear, something he can not say, but her desk and one corner of her room is like a library with no filing system.

Byleth sighed heavily, placing her head in her hands. It was late, but her mind was abuzz with possibilities she need only fact check and cross reference with the right texts. If only Claude were here to help her. She had no doubts he would struggle to find it just as much, if not more so, than she would, but four hands were better than two, especially with his own version of a private (or, more aptly, stolen) collection stored in his own rooms.

Byleth glanced outside her window. It really was late at night. But… Claude was a restless sleeper. They had spent many a night staying up too late researching, or accidentally meeting in an insomniac driven stroll around the monastery. Perhaps he was still awake. And if he wasn’t…

The ex mercenary bit her lip in hesitation. Sometimes he fell asleep when they holed themselves in each others rooms in search of the unknown. Her presence during those moments never seemed to disturb him. Maybe it wouldn’t disturb him now either.

Byleth scowled lightly (a voice that could have sounded like Sothis once upon a time told her Claude would be whining at how many times he missed her expressions adapting like that. She would never tell him it was only when it was about him her facial muscles twitched so much). She couldn’t disturb him on the off chance he really was sleeping. Claude deserved all the sleep he could get.

On the other hand…

Five minutes later found a disgruntled Byleth, clutching related tomes, stalking upstairs. It didn’t take her long to reach the Alliance leader’s room, but she still frowned at the door for a solid ten seconds, not moving, when she arrived. She couldn’t hear anything coming from inside.

She knocked tentatively, shifting her materials into the crook of her arm.

No answer. Byleth inhaled and twisted the door open.

And promptly dropped everything she’d been holding

Practically spread eagled on his bed, Claude was fast asleep. Byleth desperately tried focusing on his cute little sleeping face, where his eyebrows lay intently furrowed, as if he dreamed of something particularly peculiar or of interest. His mouth was open slightly, soft inhales and exhales coming peacefully. 

For once, she found it incredibly difficult to keep her focus on his face. Byleth’s face bloomed a soft pink, eyes guiltily darting down the line of his body. 

Claude slept with only the top sheet, twisted and wrapped around his lower half. Toned calves and muscled thighs peeked out from where he’d shifted in his sleep, drawing her eyes further upwards. She refused to let her eyes linger where the sheets snuggly wrapped, instead letting her eyes drink in the sight of his chiseled bare chest and abdomen.

Byleth breathed shallowly, noting how Claude’s chest and shoulders twitched as he shifted slightly in his sleep. One arm rested solidly behind his head while the other splayed over his hip, dragging that infuriating sheet further down.

She couldn’t help hazy eyes taking in the lines resting by his hip. They pointed into the sheet, decorated abs glistening with a thin layer of sweat, as if Claude was overheating, his dreams too much.

Byleth slowly crouched to the floor, picking up her books one by one. Her eyes stuck, mesmerised, on that tiny inch of slip that did not adequately cover much. Her fingers trembled as they caressed the spine of a book, and her eyes finally slipped downwards just that slightest bit to the bulge trapped under his twisted sheet.

His hand was achingly close. It was with a slight gasp and the slip of a scroll from her hands that Byleth realised Claude was actually half hard.

Claude whined softly in his sleep, and Byleth held her breath, face flushed, as she wondered for the first time what exactly it was he was dreaming about. The thought was shoved to the back of her mind quickly, her eyes widening as she realised he was waking up.

The door, slowly sliding shut behind her, closed with a quiet ‘snick’. Byleth sat there, legs collapsed on either side of her with a pool burning in her lower abdomen as Claude’s eyes blearily opened. His emerald eyes barely fluttered, immediately finding hers under a half lidded gaze. It made Byleth unable to look away, even as all she could think about was how little cloth separated his half erect form from the rest of the room.

Claude seemed to hum almost appreciatively when he saw her, shifting to lie on his side and consequently letting his sheet slip a little lower. His hand came to scratch at his chest, the one hiding behind his head scrunching in his pillow. His voice was husky and barely awake when he lazily scanned every crevice of her body, from her flushed face to frozen hands. “Hey Teach.”

Byleth swallowed as Claude struggled to keep his eyes open. She looked away from the sight of him. It was one thing to momentarily be drawn in by his physique and another entirely for the sound of his voice, gravelly with sleep and voice hungry with remnants of his dream, to make her legs clench tighter together.

“I’m just here to find some more books. Go back to sleep.” Byleth kept her voice low, trying to keep out the breathless quality trying to swallow her merely from the heat of his gaze and the way his messy hair fell in his half open lids. She quickly scrambled to an area off to his nightstand, where she knew were an assortment of maps she needed.

“C’mere.” she could hear him mumble. She stayed still with her back to him, ardently digging through the mess on his floor.

Byleth’s breath hitched audibly when his bed creaked, one of Claude’s hands coming to curve around the side of her throat reverently. His chest came to rest heavily against her, Claude incoherently whining against her back. She could feel the heat radiating off of him. She tried not to think about the fact he was naked.

“Come back to bed, Byleth.” he murmured headily into her ear. She tried not to think of those implications as one arm, muscled and very close to her face, folded over her to wrap a hand around her thigh. His touch burned through her tights and sent a gasp of surprise and arousal into her veins.

The sound made Claude pause. He absentmindedly kneaded at her neck and thigh until, suddenly, he didn't anymore. He froze completely. “…Am I awake right now?”

His voice was still gravelly with sleep, but somehow Byleth could tell his eyes were wide open now. She could feel how his chest, still pressed hotly against her back, was locked tight in the sudden awareness of being wide awake.

It turns out Claude didn’t need an answer. He whispered a soft ‘fuck’ under his breath, backing away and dragging his body off Byleth’s instantly. He unintentionally skimmed his hand up the expanse of her thigh, making her bite her lip harshly to stifle the noise aching to leave her throat.

Byleth could still feel the remnants of heat latched onto every part of her he’d touched.

“Fuck,” Claude said again, this time louder and with a husky undertone she didn't think had anything to do with sleep. “Why didn't you do something to stop me, Teach?”

Byleth peered over her shoulder. Claude was standing now, a flush to his cheeks and his bare chest as he held himself in his hands, covering the most bare parts of him. He noticed her staring, returning the look with heat.

Their faces both flushed to match when she said “Because you’re naked.”

Claude coughed to the side, as much to clear his throat as to flick his hair out of his face. Byleth wanted to do it for him. She’d never seen him quite so disheveled before. The squirming of her legs told her she wanted to see him like this again.

Byleth turned back around. Claude growled under his breath “I guess there’s no way I’m getting back to sleep now.”

She felt a stab of guilt at that before she realised he was probably really griping over the loss of his, erm, personal time. She began to shuffle the loose papers in front of her. After all this, and she still hadn’t found the one she was looking for.

She heard a rustle of cloth and books being moved before Claude, shirtless and now clad in a loose pair of harem pants that slung low on his hips, sat across from her. The mess on his floor barely allowed room to separate them. Byleth tried hard not to focus on the fact that, if she really looked, she would be able to see everything through the loose and thin material of Claude’s hastily thrown on pants. 

Claude stuck a hand into his hair harshly, trying to stick some of it out of his face in a mild taming. It didn’t work, his curls falling back over his face almost immediately after. Byleth wondered how long it took him to style it in the morning. In the meantime, he angrily blew it backwards, continuing to mess with it with his hands. 

“What is it you’re looking for?” He huffed, turning piercing eyes on her, stare heavy and intense with weight. 

Byleth blushed from the look, but refused to look away. Goddess only knows where her eyes would be drawn if she did. Claude heaved a shaky inhale and her eyes subsequently glanced down at his broad shoulders and chest, hollows and crevices still shining in the low light with sweat. It really must have been a good dream.

The way Claude slowly exhaled told her he definitely noticed the way her gaze lingered. The way her back automatically straightened at the expectation of his look told Byleth she liked it. “Maybe I should come back later.”

She refused to glance at his waist, where she was sure she would find a sight more upright than the sheet had ever revealed. Claude’s expression wavered between dark lust and contriteness. Eventually, he swallowed harshly. “Yeah,” he said throatily, honestly, “Maybe you should.”

Byleth stood, her feet delicately picking across his room. She left her books there for another time. If she’d spared a glance backwards when she uttered a hushed goodnight, she would have seen how Claude gripped the roots of his hair, inhaling in frustration of more than one kind.

She made sure to shut the door behind her.

Neither Byleth nor Claude slept very well that night.


End file.
